Arizona D-lineman mistakes new Cal coach Wilcox for a player

Arizona defensive lineman Luca Bruno isn’t a youngin’ in the Pac-12. A redshirt senior who joined the Wildcats in 2013, he was in college when Justin Wilcox was defensive coordinator for Washington in 2013 and USC in 2014.

Now, Wilcox is the head coach of the California Golden Bears.

Bruno learned that the hard way Wednesday at Pac-12 Media Days. The Pac-12 Network folks caught wind of a very awkward interaction between Bruno and Wilcox in which Bruno thought the Cal coach was a player.

“How does this go around so fast? How’d it get leaked so quickly?” Bruno said when he was asked about the awkward meeting on set. “I was just going around the circle and everyone was saying ‘hi’ to each other, you know, shaking each others’ hands. I respect that coach and everything — I’ll say that now. He had his hand out to shake it, and I was like “oh, hey, my name’s Luca Bruno’ and he was, like, kind of silent for a second, so I said, ‘What’s your name?’